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“People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world. ” ― Joe Strummer

The unfolding refugee crisis has touched many of us and it’s difficult to know how we can respond.

The purpose of this group is to provide a coordinated Marlow response to the crisis. There are many grass-roots organisations around the country that have sprung up because people want to do something to help. We believe that the same may be true in Marlow and we are here to facilitate that response.

The aims of Marlow Refugee Action are to:

Inform the people of Marlow about the crisis and how they can play an active role in helping to alleviate the suffering caused

Fund-raise for specific agencies involved in front-line help

Collect donations of aid through targeted appeals

Marlow Refugee Action started following a couple of conversations between Tom Doust and Vanessa Faulkner. Tom and Vanessa have known one another for many years through having children in the same schools in Marlow and both became independently involved with the refugee appeals in High Wycombe.

Through our facebook page we have already made contact with many other like-minded people who wish to do something to help. Please do join us too!

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About

The scale of the refugee crisis is difficult to absorb and understand, and it is easy to feel powerless to help.

In 2017 the statistics from the UNHCR showed that the number of displaced people worldwide was the highest ever at 68.5 million people. Of these, 28 million people were refugees, fleeing their home countries as a result of persecution, war or violence. Over half of these were under the age of 18, and nearly 5 million were from Syria. Many of these refugees are being hosted in camps in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, whilst others travel across Europe through Greece, Italy and the Balkans.

Understanding the statistics is one thing, but these people are not just statistics they are individuals like you and me. They had homes, careers, and social lives; they have children like ours who played sport and played with friends; they had promising futures, hopes and dreams; but they have made the difficult choice to leave and we can barely imagine the horrific circumstances which lead them to this, nor can we imagine what their lives are like now.

Even though it feels like there is little we can do individually, together we can make a difference.

You may have questions about how the High Wycombe group developed and how the aid is sent to places in need so here is a little more information about that.

‘Donations for Refugees’ was started in Sept 2015 by Ann Phipps who visited Calais camp after holiday in France to donate camping equipment.

She started an appeal for donations and was completely overwhelmed.

This coincided with the tragic image of Aylan Kurdi which galvanised a group of individuals in High Wycombe to join Ann in action.

They were offered the disused garden centre at West Wycombe and collecting started in earnest.

Since then they have been homed in 4 different donated sites and have sent a total of 12 containers of aid; 11 to Syria and 1 to Lebanon; pallets to Greece and van loads to Calais

The donations include food, clothes, toiletries, items for mothers and babies, pushchairs (100), even ambulances! In Syria the aid has been sent through charities who are active and experienced in the area including One Nation, WISE (Wycombe Islamic Society Welfare) and Muslims in Need. Aid to Lebanon is coordinated through another local aid agency Salam LADC. Volunteers from Wycombe have gone to help in Calais and Greece and raised money to buy supplies locally.

They have expanded beyond helping refugees (hence the name change to ‘High Wycombe Helping Others’) and linked with other local charities like Wycombe Homeless Connection, Saunderton Lodge, the Dorcas project and One Can Trust and even sent aid to the areas affected by floods last year.

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Contact

You can contact either Tom or Vanessa by email , or you can message us through our Facebook page

…or if you live in Marlow you may very well know one or the other of us anyway.